LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – No Republicans agreed to serve on a Metro Council panel that will review council charges against GOP member Anthony Piagentini, who was found guilty of ethics violations last month.
As a result, the five-person charging committee announced Wednesday includes representatives solely from the council’s Democratic majority.
“We invited the minority caucus to join us in what historically has been a bipartisan effort when allegations of misconduct were brought against a sitting member of the council. In all cases, charges were brought against members of the majority caucus,” said council member Cindi Fowler (D-14th District), chair of the council’s government oversight/audit and appointments committee.
“But now, when charges are against a member of the minority caucus, the senior members refuse to step up as they have in previous cases,” she said.
Three current Republicans on Metro Council – Kevin Kramer, Stuart Benson and Robin Engel – served on prior charging committees. Engel was on the panel involving former Democratic member Dan Johnson in 2017; Benson and Kramer served on the committee that reviewed the case of the late former Democratic member Judy Green in 2011.
Metro Council President Markus Winkler, a Democrat, formally created the ad hoc charging committee Wednesday. Besides Fowler, other members include Pat Mulvihill (D-10th), Paula McCraney (D-7th), Betsy Ruhe (D-21st) and Andrew Owen (D-9th).
A press release said the committee’s job is to “review the evidence and determine whether formal removal charges should be filed.”
Benson and Engel did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday afternoon. But Kramer challenged that description in an interview, saying the committee isn’t “deciding what to do.”
“A charging committee comes together to press charges. That's why it's called a charging committee,” Kramer said. “It's five people who agree that the person is guilty – and they bring forward evidence.”
The Louisville Metro Ethics Commission in late October unanimously found that Piagentini violated six of seven charges in connection with his role in a $40 million federal grant he backed for his future employer. The bipartisan ethics commission suggested the Metro Council remove him from office.
Kramer said he’s seen no evidence from his review of the ethics commission’s findings that merits council charges against Piagentini.
“And so for me to join the charging committee -- or any of my colleagues to join the charging committee -- means that I believe he's guilty,” he said.
Piagentini, a Republican who represents eastern Jefferson County, co-sponsored an ordinance directing $40 million in federal COVID-19 pandemic relief money to the Louisville CEO Council last year, removing his name as sponsor moments before a final vote. He then abstained from voting.
He took a one-year, $240,000 consulting job with the group the next day, according to evidence shown at his August trial.
The ethics commission ruling accused Piagentini of taking “advantage of a perilous moment in government finance,” during the pandemic, with the goal of enriching himself.
Piagentini has pledged to “use every legal means at my disposal to fight” the ethics commission’s ruling.
If the Piagentini case proceeds to a Metro Council removal trial, 18 members of the 26-person council would have to vote to oust him. The council’s current makeup is 16 Democrats, nine Republicans and one Independent.
Fowler said the charging committee will meet next week to elect its leadership and “consult with counsel to examine the facts of the case over the next few weeks and to come to an agreement on whether or not we proceed with charges.”
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